The present invention relates to window shade slats provided for insertion into the bottom hem pocket of a window shade in order to keep the shade straight and for providing a rigid hand-hold to raise or lower the shade. More specifically, the present invention relates to an adjustable width window shade slat which may be easily shortened by the user in the home without the use of any tools, by manually breaking the end of the slat off at predetermined lines of weakness in order to substantially conform the length of the slat to the length of the hem pocket. More specifically still, the present invention relates to an adjustable length window shade slat made from a uniquely formed convolutely or spirally wound paper tube.
The utilization of longitudinally extending slats, such as wooden slats, for the purpose of insertion into a hem pocket at the bottom of the window shade in order to provide a means for keeping the shade straight and as a means for grasping the shade is well known. Traditionally, such wooden slats are sold with the window shade and are not readily adjustable by the user. Ordinarily, both shade and slat are cut in the store for the customer so that the customer must have prior information with respect to the precise width to which the window shade should be cut.
The equipment in the store for cutting window shades to width include a special window shade cutting machine and a special snipping device used to snip off the excess width of the window shade slat after the width of the window shade itself has been reduced. Sales personnel must be available to operate the equipment to the customer's specifications. However, it is not always clear to the customer how to make the required measurements so that in many cases the measurement which the sales personnel uses in operating the cutting machine is incorrect with the result that the shade and slat are cut to an improper width. If the measurement is recognized to be inadequate, the customer must return home and retake the measurement before the shade and slat can be correctly cut.
Recent advances in the art of adjustable width window shades and window shade rollers have been made which provide window shades and rollers which are readily adjusted in width in the home by the customer, thereby dispensing with the need to premeasure the size of the window and to rely on the availability and competence of the sales personnel. Such an advance is disclosed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 723,781 filed Sept. 16, 1976 in the name of John D. Donofrio entitled SHADE ROLLER ASSEMBLY, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. The present adjustable width window shade slat completes the width adjustability of the window shade assembly as a whole in an inexpensive manner which makes it possible for the homeowner to make all the width adjustments at home without the use of special tools.